This page is still being updated. There are missing details including people! But in the spirit of a commons we share this emergence. Take note and return for updates in a day or two.
Common Spaces – Art Angel Photography Group
Art Angel’s Tuesday Photography Group have been exploring the idea of Dundee as a Commons, and what the concept of a commons means to the group. Access to public and common spaces are essential to how the group functions. As we explore these free and accessible spaces our photography skills develop, both technically and artistically.
Walking through Dundee to find places to focus our photography on it becomes apparent that actively engaging with the city though walking and photography is important to our wellbeing. As a group of individuals who have had, or who are experiencing mental health difficulties, this engagement helps aid recovery in a number of ways – walking as a group and freely exploring the city brings physical benefits as well as giving people a chance to socialise and engage with one another; using photography as a focus for meaningful, creative activity helps members of the group look at Dundee in a new way; it also builds creative skills and confidence while developing feelings of empowerment and belonging.
For the Dundee Commons Festival we have made a collaborative piece of work that focuses on the common spaces of the city and their benefit to the group. By using fragments of our photographs to form a map of Dundee, we hope to reflect the links between the common spaces of Dundee and the photography group – exploring creativity through photography; exploring the city through walking; gathering together at the end of the day for a cup of tea.
Where: Central Library, Wellgate, DD1 1DB
When: Monday 24th August – Saturday 29th August, 9.00 – 18.00
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Commons Ceremony – Devised by Jonathan Baxter and Gerry O’Brien in conversation with Cathy Bache, Alison Philp, Karen Spy and Donald Spy
What: A ceremony-in-the-making
Statement –
‘To be initiated is to be re-wed to one’s own metaphor, who one is and with a notion of for what purpose.’ Bani Shorter
How do we ‘end’ a festival? What, if any, journey have we undertaken? Are we changed? Transformed? Renewed? Exhausted? And how do we mark the transition from being-in-common to being you and me?
This final event is a ceremony-in-the-making. It brings together various strands of a year-long programme entitled If the City were a Commons … It asks participants in the programme, and the Dundee Commons Festival more broadly, to reflect on their own understanding of the commons as it relates to public and private space, our homes and our personal lives.
By providing spaces and resources for both public and private reflection, the Commons Ceremony will be guided but not predicted. Participants are asked to bring one object relating to their understanding of the commons, one item of clothing (or fabric) they are prepared to exchange, and one dish of food they would like to share.
The Commons Ceremony is open to all and determined by all. Openness and unpredictability will be held-in-common. A safe framework will be provided and a commons score will be devised. Only then will we enter into the space of the Commons Ceremony.
Spaces:
Home space – to reflect on the metaphor of ‘return’ (through creative writing)
Transportation space – to prepare for a journey and safe return (through conversation and sustenance)
Garage space – to journey in the underworld of our psyche (through props and costumes)
Drawing Space – to draw together and create (through drawing and mask-making)
Free space – to step outside and not take part (through non-participation and temporary withdrawal)
Ceremonial Space – to walk a labyrinth and perform a ceremony (through whatever choices we make)
Where: The College of Self-Disruption, 12 Gourlay Yard, City Quay, DD1 3BR
When: Sunday 30th August, 13.00 – 17.00
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stuff of lives – Claire Briegel
>What: a two-part project including ‘Daily Bread’ and ‘Dundee Commons Shop’
Statements –
Daily Bread
Daily Bread is a series of breadmaking workshops taking place on each weekday morning of the Dundee Commons Festival, at the Roseangle Commons Hub. The practice of daily bread abounds in cultural and spiritual significance, resonating with an understanding of the commons in our everyday lives. As with commoning – the practice of sustaining the commons – bread as a staple, or staff of life, is a shared resource of value to our physical as well as social and emotional sustenance. The daily ritual of morning breadmaking holds some of the rhythms of the festival, and responds to the specific concerns of each day with a sense of plenitude and abundance!
These are public workshops – an opportunity to enjoy and celebrate the simple act and artistry of making bread together through kneading, proving and scoring our own daily bread. No need to book, and open to everyone with no prior experience necessary – participants will be guided through the process as much or as little as they wish.
You will bake two loaves – one for you and one to gift, donate or give away to whomever or whatever you choose!
Please note: latecomers and drop-ins welcome but this will mean missing out on some of the process.
Where: Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe.
When: Monday 24th – Friday 28th August, 9.30 – 10.15
Dundee Commons Shop
Dundee Commons Shop invites individuals and organisations to contribute produce and products based on small-scale productivity or self-organisation.
According to the concept of the shop, each contributor decides their own currency of trade or exchange: fixed prices, suggested donations, non-monetary exchanges, or simply being ‘free’. Each product will be clearly marked as such, with an explanation of the exchnage taking place. Contributors are welcome to leave information and publicity about their projects, to help in visualising local networks.
As part of a wider exploration of Dundee Commons, the shop will also be host to broader social exchanges, research and subsequent conversations around commoning in the transactions and interactions of our everyday lives.
Dundee Commons Shop is also part of The International Village Shop, and will feature Travelling Goods from the network.
Where: Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe.
When: Monday 24th – Friday 28th August, 9.30 – 15.00
Dundee Commons Shop Discussion
Join Claire for an introduction to Dundee Commons Shop and an informal discussion around the ‘stuff of lives’, looking at broader social and emotional interactions, transactions and decisions that make up a ‘staple’ of our common lives and livelihoods.
Where: Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe.
When: Wednesday 26th August 15.00 – 17.00
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Silvery Tay-Haired Women – Kate Clayton
What: a performance event – with related workshops – for women with silver, white or grey hair
Statement –
Calling all SILVERY TAY-HAIRED WOMEN!
Do you have white, grey or silver hair? Have you successfully resisted pressure to dye your hair? What other pressures do you feel you’re under as a woman today?
A group of women will be stepping out along a silver carpet leading from Caird Hall to City Square. What will we display on our placards? That will be determined by the workshops taking place earlier in the week, providing an opportunity for silver, white or grey haired women to meet each other, establish common interests and find both voice and visibility.
For more information or to contact Kate see here.
Where and when: Workshops take place at Hannah Maclure Centre, Abertay University, 1-3 Bell St, DD1 1HP. (Booking essential.) The public performance takes place in Dundee City Square on Saturday 29th August, gathering at 15.00 to perform at 16.00. (Open to new participants on the day.)
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Flow! Commons – The Artifact et al
What: A two-part poetry event combining readings, spoken word and dance
Statement –
Following its debut at Contact Theatre in October of 2011, Flow! brings together dancers and spoken word artists in an extraordinary fusion of movement and words.
Flow! is a revolutionary open stage event that sees dancers in close conversation with spoken word artists. From its roots in the USA, slam poetry has become a cultural phenomenon, touching the hearts and minds of those involved in the hip hop genre, as well as that of modern literature. Over the years, the lines between this form of performance and other arts have begun to blur. Flow! takes this a step further, allowing the spoken word to entwine itself with the human body. This event sees a succession of duets and group performances, teaming up poets with dancers to showcase their art forms collaboratively. Each pair locks, pops, spits, and rhymes their way through a spontaneous set.
For this particular show, we’ll be focusing on the idea of the commons, with spoken word artists and dancers creating work around that theme.
Flow! will be preceded by a commons-inspired poetry reading curated by Beth McDonough.
“Very occasionally in life, you get the opportunity to see something that is truly one of a kind. Something so unique that you are left feeling as if you have witnessed something truly magical. For me, Flow! #3 was that opportunity.”
Nikki McCullen, Do More Magazine
Where: Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe.
When: Saturday 29th August, 19.30 – 21.30
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Food for Thought: A Waste-Not Picnic – Creative Cooking Society
What: Let your creativity reduce food waste, fix the hole in your pocket and feed your belly!
Statement –
The Creative Cooking Society is organising a picnic using leftover ingredients, kindly donated by local organisations and individuals. We aim to raise awareness about food waste, and demonstrate that creativity can significantly contribute to a more sustainable and affordable way of living. Our weekly cooking workshops will teach preservation methods and stir creativity in order to use our resources at their full potential. The products of these workshops will be offered for free at the Roseangle Commons garden on the 25th of August. Please contact us if you wish to participate in the workshops, donate some food or join the picnic!
For more information or to contribute to the picnic contact creativecookingsociety[at]gmail.com. Or see here.
Where: Roseangle Commons and Garden, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe.
When: Tuesday 25th August, 18.30 – 20.30
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The Dundee Girlguides Centenary Commons Flashmob – Dundee Girlguides
What: a flashmob!
Girlguiding is the largest organisation for girls and young women with over half a million members in the UK. We cater for girls and young women of all ages, all abilities and all backgrounds. We give girls their own space where they can grow and develop as individuals in a supportive environment. We change as the lives of the girls change and a Flashmob is up to date and exciting – just like us!
The Girlguides believe in an equal world where all girls can make a positive difference, be happy, safe and fulfil their potential.
Where: City Square, DD1 3BY
When: Saturday 29th August, 12.00
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City as Archive – Owen Daily
What: Arterial – Waterfront Poster Project (part 1)
Statement –
Situated in the centre of Dundee’s Waterfront Redevelopment Owen Daily’s posters draw upon his teaching experience with young people from Dundee’s peripheral housing schemes.
Using public domain images, his posters reflect on experiences of disenfranchised young people through the established visual languages of power including heraldry, land ownership and the city’s rich naval history.
How can the city’s public history and personal voice be used to generate new narratives and understanding for Dundee?
It is hoped that the posters will open up conversations about shared space, place and belonging.
Where: Waterfront hoardings, Dock Street, DD1 3DP
When: Hopefully by Thursday 27th August – it’s all change in the waterfront – until Monday 28th September
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Drawing the Commons – Joanna Foster
What: digital drawing sketchbook
Statement –
Using my digital sketchbook to make a series of observational drawings during the commons week, these drawings reflect on the idea that a commons is made up of interactions between people and the spaces between events. Visual interpretations will capture some of the textures that contribute to the experience of the festival, and that might otherwise go undocumented. Digital sketches will be made available throughout the week through display in Roseangle Commons and through online forums.
Where: Online and at Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe
When: whenever Joanna makes a drawing
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Singing the Commons – curated by Joanna Foster
What: Dundee and Fife-based DIY music event
Statement –
Exploring DIY music initiatives formed on the periphery of mainstream culture to develop a network and sense of community through music, both for the musicians involved and the audiences who attend gigs; this project invites musicians from self-organised networks in Dundee and Fife to take part in an evening of musical performances, bringing together musicians and publics from either side of the Tay.
Musicians include: Sarah Banjo, Esperi, Jo Foster, Sonny Carntyne, Wire and Wool, Metacandriu et al
Where: Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe
When: Friday 28th August, 19.30 – 22.30
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common(AR)s – Jeanette Ginslov et al
What: a dialogical Screendance and AR (Augmented Reality) project, that archives and shares dances inspired by the negotiations of space and the affordances of passageways and walkways in Dundee.
Statement –
common(AR)sis about movement of people in shared spaces.
common(AR)s is a dialogical Screendance and AR (Augmented Reality) project, that archives and shares dances inspired by the negotiations of space and the affordances of passageways and walkways in Dundee.
common(AR)s is also about the medium of capture, the movement of the video camera in dialogue with a dancer’s movement and the movement of the viewer within an interaction design.
common(AR)s is a journey of virtual micro-narratives tagged within the Digital Commons of Dundee. The digital dance media floats as a layer of narrative in the city, liberating the choreographic language from more traditional theatrical settings: the audience participates in the work rather than consumes. There is a sense of being here and there, the AR opening up wormholes of time, memory and narrative, buried within the city and the bodies that “dance” through it.
common(AR)s is accessed using the AR app Aurasma on smart mobile devices. The screendance clips tagged to gps coordinates, are viewed by walking through the city with a map or by visiting the installation of images at Roseangle Commons.
Concept, videos and interaction design: Jeannette Ginslov. With dancers from Dundee performing the screendance.
Available for Android and iOS smart phones and tablets. To set up: Go to Roseangle Artist Cafe. Join the wifi or use your own data. iOS users: go to the App Store, search for Aurasma & download it. Open the app, skip the tutorial. and search for the Channel: common(AR)s. Follow it. Android users: go to Google Play and do the above. Use your own data when in the city.
Where: Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe – and live in the city and online.
When: Monday 24th August – Sunday 30th August
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If the City were an Orchard – Sarah Gittins
What: Screenprints exploring the Biodiversity Commons of an Orchard City
Statement –
And the children in the apple-tree / Not Known, because not looked for / But heard, half heard, in the stillness / Between the two waves of the sea
From ‘Little Gidding’ by T. S. Eliot
Over the past two years I have been working with my partner, Jonathan, on an art and horticulture project called DUO (Dundee Urban Orchard). DUO has worked alongside community groups, schools and cultural organisations to establish a network of 24 small-scale orchards that together reimagine Dundee as an Orchard City. During this time I have also made regular visits to draw an old apple orchard on the grounds of the Hill of Tarvit, Fife. In the If the City were an Orchard prints I have imagined this old orchard into some of the streets and public spaces of Dundee. An orchard, when left alone, can support a wide variety of flora and fauna as well as producing fruit for us to eat. These plants and creatures in turn support the health of the the trees. Put simply – the worms are there beneath the paving stones, they help create healthy soil for the trees and flowering plants, without the flowers the bees and other pollinating insects would not come, without the pollinators there would be no fruit on the trees, without the bugs and fruit the birds would go hungry, and so on. This balance of life is necessary for all of us to thrive and could be seen as a Biodiversity Commons. Honouring the Biodiversity Commons is part of what makes Dundee an Orchard City.
Where: Roseangle Commons Gallery Space, Dundee West Church, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseange Arts Cafe
When: Monday 24th August – Sunday 30th August
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Our World to Save – One World Centre and young people from Dundee
What: visual art exhibition created by young people from across Dundee, supported by the One World Centre and local artists
Statement –
The artworks celebrate our common humanity and reflect upon our collective social and environmental responsibilities as citizens of the world.
This exhibition contains pieces created by young people from groups within Dundee schools and the wider community, evidencing their own understanding of the connections between ‘home’ and the global commons. The artworks have been developed through conversation and a gradual revealing of the underlying questions and tensions faced by the participants. The exhibition expresses a positive message calling for a common humanity, challenging our inertia with energy. The young people are profoundly optimistic regarding the future of our world but equally certain in their demand that individually and collectively we make the change.
Some of the pieces are of a personal nature, reflecting the feelings and circumstances of those involved in the project. The pieces represent the participants’ beliefs that we are stronger when we are together than when apart. A genuine commons surely has to feature the voices of the disempowered and the marginalised. A disengagement from what is accepted as mainstream society can manifest itself in different ways, but this same society can ruthlessly separate us from our true selves. This project has enabled participants to begin a longer process of reflection upon their own situations and those of others. This has been encouraged not only through an outlet for creative expression but by offering the space and time to think. What happens when we come to a realisation that we are not truly free?
If there is a hoped for outcome to the process it is to encourage participants and observers to begin an internal dialogue, to, as Hakim Bey reminds us, liberate an area of land, of time, of imagination. Only by becoming vulnerable ourselves can we fully understand the vulnerabilities of our neighbours.
Where: Meadow Mill Projects, Wasps Studios, Meadow Mill, West Henderson’s Wynd, DD1 5BY
When: Friday 28th August 6.30pm (opening), Saturday 29th August 12.00 – 18.00 and Sunday 30th August 12.00 – 17.00
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Agreeculture – Roundabout Collective (Nerea Gurrutxaga and Marti Güell Vallbona)
What: Performance exploring the negotiation of an agreement
Statement –
This work is an exploration around the idea of agreement. The premise of our research is a conception of agreement, as something malleable and constantly subject to compromise and adaptation, rather than a fixed point of arrival. There is a journey before and after an agreement, where we have been wandering during the creation. The various attempts to persuade and convince do not resolve themselves once the agreement is reached, but will rather evolve to further power dynamics and negotiations. Initially being the core of our interests and research, the concept of agreement became more and more relevant throughout the process, due to the nature of any collaboration. In these terms, the performance can not be read as the conclusion of a process, but rather as a live exploration of the process itself. Two individuals finding their way towards an agreement.
Where: City Square, DD1 3BY
When: Saturday 29th August, 14.00
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The Roseangle-River Circuit Walk – Tina Scopa
What: Five walks
Statement –
By the simple act of walking we will collectively and metaphorically mark out a territory. This circuit will be the route of each walk. Let’s explore ideas, share thoughts, and enjoy the experience of being-in-common and walking with awareness.
This will provide an opportunity to walk a constant circuit, exploring the physical, rhythmical act of moving together through the landscape – while allowing variable thoughts to bubble up in response to sensory stimuli and the week’s activities.
Come to one walk or to many – the choice is yours.
Walkers will be invited to reflect on their experience at the end of each walk and the walking week.
Where: Commencing from, and returning to, Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe
When: Monday 24th August – Friday 28th August, 10.30 – 11.45
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Generate-a-Commons – Pernille Spence and Lada Wilson
What: An evening of performance celebrating GENERATORprojects’ soon to be opened Collective Space
Pernille Spence – untitled
Statement –
“Air is a matrix that joins all life together, past and future as well as
present.” David Suzuki
A shared space is a space where we breathe together. We share the
surrounding air as it flows in and out of our bodies and our thoughts as
we talk. In celebration of the soon to be ‘Collective Space’ I will
gather a concentration of breath, from willing participants, and mix it
with thoughts of how this space could be used in the future where it will eventually be released back into the space.
Lada Wilson – Words We Have in Common
Statement –
Words we have in common is a performative event celebrating Dundee Commons Festival’s – if the city were a commons – and the future Collective Space at GENERATORprojects, Dundee.
Words contributed by art groups and artists at Dundee’s many art spaces will be reworked as sculptures and will form the centerpiece of this shared performative event.
In the course of the performance, these words will be spoken, ‘explained’ and ultimately given to people who will choose where to place them around the city.
This artwork seeks to trigger endlessness and explore the relationship between art and society.
Where: GENERATORprojects, Unit 25/26 Mid Wynd Industrial Estate, DD1 4JG – with Commons Campervan shelter and refreshments
When: Thursday 27th August, 19.30 – 21.30
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Commons Campervan: Intervention + Transmutation – Karen Spy and Donald Spy
What: Commons Campervan as social sculpture
Statement –
Imagine …
“…you are engaged in transformative social change that is inspired by open knowledge, co-operation, and the building of commons for the well being of all…”
(President Correa of Ecuador, 2012)
“Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub; / It is the center hole that makes it useful. / Shape clay into a vessel; / It is the space within that makes it useful. / Cut doors and windows for a room; / It is the holes which make it useful. / Therefore profit comes from what is there; / Usefulness from what is not there.”
(Lao Tsu)
Where and when: Out and about throughout the festival. Locations include Roseangle Commons – providing lunchtime soup (Thursday 13.00 – 14.00), GENERATORprojects – providing shelter and refreshments (Thursday 19.30 – 21.30), City Square – providing shelter and information (Saturday 11.00 – 18.00.), and The College of Self-Disruption, Gourlay Yard – to prepare for a journey and safe return (Sunday 13.00 – 17.00).
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Back Stories Songbook – Emil Thompson
What: Local Headlines reimagined as song
Statement –
Emil will perform a short selection of acoustic songs from his songbook ‘Back Stories’ created over the course of 2014 which reference actual headline stories appearing in the Dundee Courier.
Where: Roseangle Commons and Garden, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Road, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe.
When: Monday 24th August – Friday 28th August, 12.30 – 12.50
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American Tribal Style Belly Dance – Tribal Storm
What: American tribal style belly dance!
Tribal Storm is a Tribal Belly Dance troupe based at the Dudhope Multi-cultural Centre, Ashram Bharatiya in Dundee. Their main dance style is American Tribal Style Belly Dance [ATS], but they also stray into musical comedy and character dances. ATS was developed in San Francisco in the 1980’s and is an ethnic fusion of dances from Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, India and Tunisia as well as influences from Flamenco and Gypsy Dance. It is unique, as a group improvisation. Dancers learn a vocabulary of moves and cues and the group follows the ‘leader’ creating spontaneous choreography. The colourful costume is inspired by different cultures throughout the Middle East, India and North Africa.
Where: City Square, DD1 3BY
When: Saturday 29th August, 15.00
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Home as Commons – Tom Wallace
What: drawings exploring home as a commons
Statement –
There is a dynamic tension between the external wildness of Nature and our own inner wildness of Mind/Body. Our built environment is a
paradox shielding us from that outer wildness and at the same time
nurturing our inner wildness. Home is the place where this paradox is
played out – it is not necessarily a paradox that needs resolving, it
is a dialectic or conversation about what home itself might mean.
City Quay was my starting point. The location within the wildness of
Nature is enviable. However, it also shows up many of the strange
contradictions that our Culture inadvertently displays through our
built environment. A little pedestrian bridge that crosses the
maritime entry to the Quay has become something of a metaphor for
these contradictions. The bridge stands ‘open’ for boats to pass into
the Quay – open to business. But it is thereby ‘closed’ to
pedestrians looking to enter or exit the Quay by this route. Dundee
of course is also defined by its rail and road bridges. Open to big
business has unfortunately meant closed off to the smaller scale
pleasures of life that can sometimes be dismissed as whimsical or
idealistic. Big business is about a society ‘going somewhere in a
hurry’. The inner wildness of our minds and bodies though are often
more about ‘going nowhere in a timeless moment.’
This is a drawn project. The drawings have developed set within the
context of almost a logo of the Dundee skyline as seen from the river. The City Quay bridge floats like ribbons above the Law Hill and as a bridge to the timeless world of our inner wildness. At the same time,
people are seen embedded in the outer wildness of Nature. They are
enjoying spaces and neighbourhoods. Home becomes Commons not
Enclosure. Nature remains Enchanted and not Commodified. We look to be Empleasured rather than Empowered.
Where: pending update
When: pending update
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Dundee Fortunes – Tom Wallace
What:
Statement –
Home spreads outwards from house to neighbourhood to community and town. Home, in a less literal sense, also spreads inwards. Are we at home with ourselves?
Houses separate us from the wildness of Nature. There is also a wildness of mind – a paradox of inner landscape that is not so easily resolved. Desire is insatiable and dreams unquenchable.
Those two aspects of home are linked. Built environments are reflections of our inner landscape.
Alternative ideas about the outer landscape therefore need to be qualified by an exploration of inner landscape. The question is not how to change that outer physical landscape but rather what makes people feel at home with themselves?
I remember times when I felt affirmed. Some positive statement has arrived at an appropriate moment to make me feel more at home with myself. One such incident took place in Dundee when I was very young. I had received a fortune card and an affirming phrase on the card stayed with me for many years.
I have produced a set of such cards. Affirmations on the cards will, I hope, allow people to share their stories about being at home (or not at home) with themselves. I aim to relate this back to physical homes.
‘The Commons’ is the place where inner stories play themselves out. We find home within ourselves and make home with others.
This ‘dialectic of home’ is always with us. Pockets of sanctuary are bought at the expense of more wildness elsewhere.
Where: wherever you happen to receive one
When: Monday 24th – Sunday 30th August
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Encountering the uncommon: an outsider’s point of view – Chiu Yi-Chieh
What: A photographic investigation of the Dundonian edgescape yet to be integrated into the common space and shared life of Dundee
Statement –
Photography has long been associated with immigration and foreign experience. Outsiders used lens to approach the world obscure to them and even unknown to the natives. John Thomson, a Scottish photographer from Edinburgh, probed into the life of people, landscape, and culture of Taiwan in the 19th century to present images of my home country which I no longer recognise. André Kertész and Brassai, two Hungarian émigrés resettling in 1930’s Paris, exposed the secret lives of the city which have now been acknowledged as prominent features of Parisian culture. More recently, Xyza Cruz Bacani, a domestic worker from the Philippines, used a camera to position herself with Hong Kong, a metropolitan city which she feels perpetually estranged and alienated from. Immigrants are not able to master the language of their adopted country but they turn to photography to observe the new world in a quiet and unnoticeable way.
As a Taiwanese expatriate I would like to make some contributions to Dundee – a city that has served as a haven for my diaspora and a turning point in my life. Since I started my connection with the city I have been capturing images of things which will soon disappear in the ongoing urban regeneration and life of the people.
In this exhibition I show photographs of Tayside light, mills, wynds, tower blocks, and shop signs, which comprise the “edgescape” of the city. I would like to invite audiences to consider how the urban edgescape can be integrated into our shared vision of the city. If the city were common how do we want to experience and embrace the edgescape?
When: Monday 24th – Sunday 30th August
Where:Roseangle Arts Cafe Gallery
Dundee Commons Festival 